Food for Thought
by amandajbruce
Summary: The dynamic duo takes a break from Math homework.


A/N: This would be the follow up to Movie Interrupted. I've realized that Lilly and Oliver spend way too much time in front of the television in my stories, but… you guys are just going to have to deal with that. Haha. Sorry about the wait for this one.

Food for Thought

"Oliver, do you know what I'm supposed to do?" Lilly pushed her math book in his direction, pointing to a complicated equation accompanied by a few triangles with the instruction to solve for x.

"Uh…" Oliver pretended to think hard about the numbers on the page. "Solve for x?" He gave her what he hoped was not going to be taken for a sarcastic smirk, a few strands of his hair flopping down in front of his face.

"Thank you, you're a genius," Lilly deadpanned, rolling her eyes.

"Seriously, Lils, I have no idea. My math grade's almost as bad as yours right now. I don't understand any of this." Oliver gestured to the sea of notes on the table between them and shrugged his shoulders in apology.

The two of them were sitting at Oliver's dining room table. They had been sitting there for the last hour, and were supposed to be doing their math homework, but neither of them was making much progress. The notebook in front of Lilly was covered with eraser marks and half finished problems. Oliver had tackled less questions in his own, but he had managed to actually complete a couple more than she had.

"You do realize that if I don't figure out how to do this on my own, I'm going to have to go through with being Rico's date tomorrow afternoon?" Lilly angrily tapped her pencil on the text book she had pulled back to her side.

"Yeah, you really should have thought twice before agreeing to that," Oliver told her, rifling through a few pieces of paper to try to find his notes for this particular chapter. "I mean, you saw how well that worked out for Miley."

"I'm desperate! My grade cannot keep dropping."

"I guess Rico really wants to impress his cousin, huh?" he asked, continuing to scan the lined paper.

Lilly gave him a look, trying to figure out if that was a compliment or if Oliver was just trying to make conversation, then said, "you should have seen them. It was like Rico was looking into an annoying Australian accented mirror."

Oliver laughed. He had no doubt she was right. He didn't really want to meet any of Rico's extended family though. Just knowing Rico was enough.

Lilly leaned back in the wooden chair and looked over at him. He was still trying to find the right notes. She tried not to giggle at the expression on his face as he came across a page of History notes instead.

"Maybe you should think about taking notes for different classes in different notebooks," she offered.

Oliver shot a glance at her just long enough to say, "thank you little miss organized. That's really helpful right now. Where are your notes?"

"In my locker," Lilly admitted. "I forgot to grab them."

Oliver laughed and shook his head. This was one of the reasons he and Lilly had quit studying together. One of them always managed to lose something or forget the one thing they needed. Of course, since he broke up with Joanie, they had been spending a lot more time together. He felt like he was trying to get back all the time he lost with Lilly while he was dating someone else. When they hung out before, they usually had Miley with them, but with the Hannah world taking over Miley's life lately, he was taking every opportunity possible to hang out with Lilly, just the two of them.

Oliver shuffled through a few more pages before noticing that Lilly was quiet again. Too quiet. She had been flicking through the chapter for rules on figuring out the length of the sides of an isosceles triangle, but not anymore. The pages in her book were not being turned and her pencil was not scratching on her notebook paper. He cautiously lifted his eyes back up to her. She was watching him.

"What?" he asked, worried that she had said something else and he hadn't replied to it, or that he had done something more stupid than usual.

"Nothing," she said hurriedly, and held one of her hands out. "Let me have half of those. We'll be able to find it faster."

Oliver forked over a pile of papers and decided not to call her on the blush that was now covering her face. He found himself smiling when he looked back down at the pages in front of him, liking the idea that Lilly had been watching him for no reason at all. One of the reasons he was missing large sections of notes was because he got too distracted sitting behind her in class, so it was good to know that distraction seemed to go both ways, even if neither of them was admitting it out loud.

Of course, they had that entire conversation about them hanging out as more than friends… without actually saying they were more than friends. Not to mention that whole incident in his room. Lilly had been an equal participant in both of those, but now, now she seemed to be doing little more than giving him a few extra smiles or sitting a little closer to him at lunch when Miley wasn't looking. Oliver couldn't figure it out. Maybe all of this alone time was getting to her… maybe he had come on too strong. He was just going to have to back off a little bit, control himself a little better.

"I didn't realize you doodled so much," Lilly remarked slyly as she turned one of the pages over. The margins were covered with random shapes. There was a Batman logo, a flying saucer, a weird formation of interconnected dots… and then Oliver had snatched the papers out from in front of her.

"I do not doodle," Oliver informed her shortly. "I'm a guy. Guys don't doodle. And if I did, they would be manly doodles."

He was staring at her with a completely serious expression on his face, now making sure all of his notes were in front of him on the table, still holding a few pieces of paper in one hand.

Lilly giggled a little at his proclamation. "You just like saying the word doodle, don't you?"

"Yeah, it's a pretty funny word," he admitted easily.

The both laughed, but Lilly rolled her head around, stretching the muscles in her neck and trying to get rid of the tension doing math homework created.

"Why don't we take a break?" she asked him, pushing her chair back from the table again.

"Sure," Oliver agreed. "What do you want to do?"

"Something that does not involve math."

Oliver nodded his head, tossed the papers in his hand down on to the surface of the table, got up, and stalked into the living room. Lilly watched him go, and then with a small, and maybe a little wistful of a sigh, stood and followed him to the couch.

She was trying very hard to not think of any of the other possible responses swimming around in her head to his question. There were a million things she would like to do that did not involve math homework, and a great deal of them involved Oliver right now. It was just all unfamiliar territory for the two of them, and she definitely preferred the familiar today. She did not need to be distracted by her best friend when she was worrying so much about her math grades.

Oliver had the remote in his hand and was casually flipping through channels when Lilly plopped down next to him.

"Do you ever think that maybe you watch too much TV?" Lilly asked as she watched snippets of four programs fly by on the screen.

"Too much TV? How could you even think such a thing?' Oliver responded with a grin.

Lilly rolled her eyes and let him keep pushing the button on the remote that kept the channels climbing higher. She should have known better than to even ask about Oliver and his television habit.

She watched a few more programs flick by in Technicolor pixels. The two of them sat in silence, the only sound in the room coming from the set in front of them, bits and pieces of afternoon talk shows, cartoons, a couple of news programs. Something caught Lilly's eye, and she reached out to grab a hold of Oliver's arm.

"Go back."

"What was it?"

She didn't answer, and he moved back to the previous channel. To Oliver's surprise, he saw a factory where a giant piece of mozzarella cheese was being cut down to smaller segments.

"You want to watch the food channel?" he asked her incredulously.

"I just want to see what they're making," Lilly answered, neither of them noticing that her hand was still on his forearm until he decided to rest his hand on the couch between them, jarring her. She brought her own hand back to her lap and pulled her feet up on to the couch.

A few minutes in and it was evident that the factory was the place where cheese sticks were made; breaded, deep fried cheese sticks.

Oliver cocked his head to the side as he watched the breading coat the cheese in some sort of spinning contraption before the sticks moved along a conveyor belt. "Why don't they tell you what kind of spices they put on them? All they say is it's a blend?"

"Because then, everyone would make them on their own. They wouldn't have to buy them," Lilly told him.

She glanced over at him, smiling when he caught her eye, and she worked incredibly hard to turn back to the TV and watch the batch of cheese sticks get packaged for some frozen food company. Oliver shifted his weight on the couch, consequently moving a couple of inches closer to her as he propped his feet on the table in front of them. Lilly felt her breathing speed up a little bit.

No. She was not going to pay attention to how close he was too her. Or that the hand he had on the couch between them was also closer to her. Or that he smelled like he had just got out of the shower. Or that she had a sudden need to do something, anything really, because she felt like she was about to jump out of her skin.

Okay, so she noticed. And she may have even shifted in her seat a little as well. That may have caused her to move just a little bit closer to him too. But, this was just a study break. That was all. Very soon, she was going to suggest that they go back to doing homework.

Lilly was going to make that suggestion as soon as she regained the ability to form a coherent thought, which was not really happening at the present time.

Oliver tried to appear relaxed as another segment started about cheese. This time the guy was making some sort of dip. Oliver had pretty much tuned out the entire thing though, watching the screen while his ears, and really the rest of his senses as well, were trained on Lilly. Even though she had pulled her feet up under her, she seemed anything but relaxed. Her hands were clasped in her lap like she was trying her best to hold them still, and her back was straight as a board.

Oliver knew how she felt. At least, he thought he did. Even though he had propped his feet up on the table, his legs were locked in place, not his usually relaxed and sprawling posture. And the hand he had "resting" on the couch was now braced as though he was going to have to use it to help launch himself from the cushion and away from Lilly at any minute. Or maybe toward her. He wasn't sure.

If Miley were here, she would probably inform them that they both looked like their muscles were pulled tighter than a piano string.

Lilly quickly pushed that thought away. Now was not the time to be thinking about Miley. This, whatever this was, had nothing to do with her. Lilly stole a glance in Oliver's direction, shooting her eyes to the side without actually turning her head. He was staring at the television as though he was considering jumping into it. Well, that would be interesting.

"You want anything to drink?" he asked her suddenly, and he was on his feet in less than a second.

"Uh, no, I'm okay," she sputtered, not understanding the sudden movement.

When he walked into the kitchen, Lilly closed her eyes for a minute, trying to will the anxiety about sitting on a couch with Oliver out of her mind. They had been at the dining room table together and they were just fine. Maybe that's cause they were so focused on the math homework though… and now, well, now there was only the program about cheese products to take her mind off of him. This was Oliver for crying out loud! There was no reason to be this nervous around him. So, what if there were these feelings? She had been dealing with them all perfectly fine until now. Okay, not until now, exactly. More like until two weeks ago when they were watching that movie and he… and then she… but nothing happened. So, nothing to worry about, right?

Right.

Oliver yanked open the door to the freezer and stuck his head in the rush of cool air. Cold air would calm him down. That was the plan. It would push all those annoying thoughts out of his head. The thoughts he should not be thinking about his best friend. Especially not while his parents were not in the house. The damp air was not supposed to remind him that anytime Lilly was cold, he ended up sending her home with one of his sweatshirts. Or that she looked pretty adorable in his clothes. Or wrapped up in the blanket his grandmother had made for him a couple Christmases ago. Crap. Cold air, not really working.

He sucked in a breath, grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge, and prepared to go back to torturing himself in the other room.

When Oliver's weight settled back into the couch, he was even closer to her that before he left the room. Lilly opened her eyes and looked at him. He kind of looked like he was about to be sick.

"Are you okay?"

He swung his head around to look at her, and then seemed to notice for the first time that they were both smack in the middle of the couch instead of at the distant edges like they usually were. Oliver looked at her, then the arm of the couch, then back again.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He nodded his head and his cheeks turned a little pink.

"Are you sure?" Lilly eyed his face curiously. Her discomfort didn't matter to her anymore. She was too concerned that Oliver might vomit on his mom's couch.

Oliver laughed and his face went back to normal. "I'm sure."

"Okay…"

Her eyes met his again, and they both quickly searched for something else to look at aside from each other. Neither of them attempted to move back to either end of the couch though.

Ten minutes of silence went by, and the program they were both pretending to watch came to an end, just in time for the "great cheesecake debate." Desserts, always an excellent distraction.

"How can you think that?"

"Oliver, it has strawberries on it."

"But, the other one has chocolate."

Lilly turned to face Oliver, saying, "but that would be way too rich. You'd go into sugar shock or something."

Oliver met her gaze, shooting back, "it's supposed to be dessert. The strawberries practically make it healthy."

"Cheesecake is never healthy!" Lilly exclaimed laughing.

Oliver laughed with her, responding, "exactly. Which is why you should always go for the chocolate. Might as well."

Lilly rolled her eyes and flipped her hair over her shoulder, propping her elbow on the back of the couch. "Whatever, Oken. You don't know what you're talking about."

Oliver leaned a little closer to her. "I'm pretty sure I'm the expert on desserts here, Truscott."

She stared at him, feeling her heart beat speed up. This always happened. She got caught up in something else, not noticing how close he was to her until it was too late. She really needed to work on paying better attention. If she wasn't worrying about being around him, she was getting sucked in to his eyes, and there was no one else around to pull her out.

Oliver reached for her arm, but he just took a strand of hair that had fallen back down when she had flipped it and pushed it back with the rest. Lilly watched his hand until it was settled over the back of the couch, right next to her arm. She swallowed and chanced a look back up at his face.

Oliver was frozen in place, realizing what he was doing. This was not good. His breath caught, and the look on his face mirrored the one on hers. This time, she leaned toward him. Okay, maybe this wasn't a bad thing after all.

A key twisted in the lock of the front door, and Lilly slid to one end of the couch quickly, doing her best to calm herself down. They really needed to stop letting this happen. Oliver's family was going to start wondering why they were so jumpy.

Oliver cleared his throat and scratched the back of his neck with the remote as Mr. Oken walked through the door. There was a buzzing in his ears and he stood, shaking his head a little to get rid of it.

"You need some help?" Oliver asked his father, noticing that the man had several bags of groceries clutched in his hands. He had to get out of the room before he did something… well, something he shouldn't do in front of his dad, that much he was sure of.

"Yeah, sure, there's more in the car," Mr. Oken mumbled, trying to shut the door with his foot. When he glanced back at them, he nodded his head in Lilly's direction.

"Here, let me take some of those," she told him, running to his side to relieve him of a few bags as Oliver headed down the drive way. She grabbed a cloth bag of what looked like, for the most part, vegetables, and another that had four different boxes of cereal in it. Who ate that much cereal?

"Thanks, Lilly. Always nice to see you," Mr. Oken chuckled as he led her into the kitchen.

They both set their bags on the counter, and Mr. Oken began assembling a certain set of items next to the stove while Lilly put away the cereal for him, hoping that the red she was sure had flooded her face had calmed down a little bit.

"I see you know your way around my kitchen still," he commented as she placed a box of crackers in the pantry.

"Well, you guys have been keeping everything in the same place since I was five, so…" she trailed off, seeing the laughter in his eyes.

"Are you staying for dinner? I'm making my famous spicy chicken and rice surprise." He winked at her and gestured to the ingredients he had next to the stove.

Lilly tried not to roll her eyes. She had known since she was eight that the "surprise" was cinnamon.

"I can't. We're doing a whole family dinner thing tonight. Complete with lasagna and garlic bread." She popped a grape in her mouth before she put them in the refrigerator, and wondered just what was taking Oliver so long.

"Lasagna? Isn't that a little ambitious for your mom?" Oliver's parents had recently discovered that Heather Truscott did not actually cook the food that came out of her kitchen. She usually just transferred it from take out containers to glass serving dishes.

"Oh, she's not cooking. Her new 'special friend' is." Lilly rolled her eyes at the thought. "He's a chef."

Mr. Oken laughed, saying "now that sounds more like Heather."

"He said he's gonna teach her how to make the lasagna though. He claims it's the easiest of his recipes and anyone can do it."

She moved back to the counter, placing a bunch of bananas and a few loose apples in the blue ceramic bowl on the counter top.

"Well that's good," Mr. Oken remarked.

"Why" Lilly asked, just as Oliver came in through the garage door, asking "what's good?"

Lilly watched him start unloading his bags on to the counter top for a second before she began picking the items up and putting them away.

"Lilly's mom is going to learn how to make lasagna tonight," Mr. Oken informed him.

"The chef?" he asked Lilly. She nodded, taking the gallon of milk he held out to her. "Why is that good?" he asked his dad. "Other than her knowing how to make something besides breakfast, I mean."

"If you can cook with someone, you know you're compatible."

Oliver looked like he was trying not to laugh at that, but Lilly was intrigued.

"Really?" She leant against the counter top, leaving Oliver to put the rest of his groceries away himself, and watched Mr. Oken pull all of the small jars of spices he needed from the rack hanging above the stove.

"Oh, yeah. Especially if you make something really complicated. You really get a feel for the other person." Mr. Oken nodded his head, leaning against the opposite counter now.

"But you and mom never cook together," Oliver pointed out.

"That's because I like to make spicy things and your mom likes to make everything else."

"So you guys aren't compatible, then?" Oliver asked, confused. He had halted in his attempt at folding the cloth bag in front of him.

Lilly caught the bit of alarm in his voice, and his father must have too.

"No, no! We used to cook together all the time when you were little. There are just certain things that I'm better at making, or certain things your mom likes to make more than I do. Plus, our schedules are so different most of the time now, that it cuts down on the work if we trade off once in a while."

Lilly nodded her head before she added, "and you guys always do your holiday meals together. I remember breakfast on Oliver's birthday was ready in fifteen minutes flat. Not that Oliver would know since he didn't get up until after he smelled the food."

Oliver elbowed her in side when he walked past her. "Very funny."

Lilly smiled to herself before pushing away from the counter.

"I should probably get going. I've got to squeeze in some more studying before I have to make myself look presentable for the 'family' dinner."

"I'm sorry I couldn't be more help with the math," Oliver told her, watching as she started gathering her things in the dining room.

"No big deal. I'll just have to take Rico up on his offer, even if it is disgusting."

"You two were studying?" Mr. Oken cut in with a slight smirk on his face. "Why were you on the couch if your books are in here?"

Lilly froze, temporarily confused by the question, her head still filled with Oliver's eyes on the couch, but Oliver was unfazed, telling his father, "we were taking a break."

Uh, huh…" he responded, but Lilly could tell by his tone that he didn't believe Oliver's reason.

She hurried for the door, not really wanting to be a part of this conversation. It didn't matter that technically, nothing was going on. Nothing that could get Oliver in trouble with his parents or anything anyway. She would let Oliver handle any possibly embarrassing questions that might come up. After all, it was his dad asking the questions, not hers.

When Lilly was safely outside of the Oken house, Oliver sighed, and his father gave him a look.

"What?" Oliver groaned, afraid he knew where this conversation was going.

"Your mom's birthday's coming up." His dad carefully removed chicken breast from a layer of butcher paper and set it into a large pan.

Oliver's forehead furrowed in confusion. That was not what he expected his dad to tell him.

"Maybe you should see if Lilly'll help you bake her a cake… from scratch." He was wiping his hands on a towel as he said it.

There was just a hint of laughter in his dad's voice. Now, that was more along the lines of what he expected.

"Dad! How many times do I have to tell you that Lilly and I are just friends!" His voice sounded thin and unconvincing even to his own ears.

"Until you actually mean it."

"Dad!"

"Besides, I said absolutely nothing about you two being anything other than friends. You jumped to that conclusion all on your own." Mr. Oken smiled at the look he was sure was currently plastered on his son's face as he began seasoning the chicken breast.

"But you just…" Oliver hesitated, trying to find the right thing to say. "You just said that whole thing about people cooking together."

"About people who are already in a relationship, yes."

Oliver glared at his father's back, really wanting to say something a little more enlightening than, "there is nothing going on between Lilly and me."

Mr. Oken turned around to face him, an amused expression on his face, with chili powder in one hand and cinnamon in the other. Oliver glared down at the counter top now instead.

"Oliver, I was a sixteen-year-old boy once, you know."

Oliver didn't hear the teasing tone anymore, but he couldn't bring himself to look his dad in the eye. He was not going to have this conversation. As much as he might have wanted there to be something going on between him and his best friend, he kept missing out on opportunities for anything to actually happen because other people kept showing up. Not that he wanted something to happen. Not like that. He just… yeah, okay, he wanted something to happen. That much was obvious.

"Nothing's going on," Oliver told his father again. "Not yet," he added under his breath as he exited the kitchen.

Grabbing his own math homework, he ran upstairs to his room, prepared to find his phone to call Lilly and see if she wanted to help him with a birthday cake. He just wouldn't tell his dad if she said no.


End file.
